COVID-19 Funding Opportunities

Various government agencies, companies, and foundations have announced non-dilutive funding opportunities to encourage research and development to address the novel Coronavirus pandemic. Some of these opportunities allow applicants to propose new projects addressing COVID-19, while others provide funding to expand the scope of existing awards to include COVID-19-related research.

As the COVID-19 situation continues to develop, EGC will maintain an updated list of relevant funding opportunities here. Click below to be notified as new COVID-19 research grants are announced.

BARDA has updated its Broad Agency Announcements (BAAs) to focus exclusively on addressing the COVID-19 threat. BARDA’s annual budget of $512 Million has been supplemented by an additional $3.5 billion through the recently passed Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The additional funding is allocated for necessary expenses of manufacturing, production, and purchase of various supplies and services.

Due Date: Abstract submissions due by 5PM ET on 6/30/2020.Budget: $750,000

CoronaWatch

While
CoronaWatch is not a direct funding mechanism, the U.S. government seeks information
from stakeholders on available medical countermeasures in development for
COVID-19. A CoronaWatch meeting is held by interactive webinar, in which the
presenting team displays slides and engages with government personnel. A CoronaWatch meeting is encouraged prior to
applying for BARDA funding, so that organizations can better align their product
development with government priorities.

Description: The NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award Program supports individual scientists or groups of scientists proposing groundbreaking, exceptionally innovative, original, and/or unconventional research with the potential to create new scientific paradigms, establish entirely new and improved clinical approaches, or develop transformative technologies with the potential to produce a major impact on SARS-CoV-2 prevention, preparation, or response. No preliminary data are required.

Topics: Any area of research relevant to the prevention of, preparation for, or response to coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, including behavioral/social science research, research on health disparities, novel therapeutics, and other related topics

Due Dates: 9/30/2020 (opens 8/30/2020)Budget: Not limited, but must be commensurate with the scope of the proposed research

Notices of Special Interest (NOSI)

Multiple NIH Institutes have issued a Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) to provide funding for research topics related to COVID-19. For most of these opportunities, the applicant must have an active award through the Institute with sufficient time remaining to complete all studies proposed.

National Institute on Aging (NIA), National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

PA-18-935 Urgent
Competitive Revision to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements for NIH
grantees applying to expand the scope of their active grant.

PA-18-591 Administrative
Supplements to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements to provide funds
for NIH grantees where the work proposed in the supplement is fully within
the scope of the ongoing grant.

Topics: NIA – Mission critical areas as they relate to the COVID-19 pandemic. NIMH – Applications addressing care for new or worsening mental health needs and/or suicide risk in midlife and older age adults will be seen as a high priority.

Due Date: Rolling until 5/1/2021Budget: Limited to no more than that amount of the current parent award.

Description: NHLBI is issuing this Notice of Special Interest due to the urgent need for early phase clinical trials to evaluate new or existing interventions that may prevent or treat COVID-19. NHLBI seeks to leverage existing clinical trials expertise and, using NHLBI programs that are actively conducting Phase I-III clinical trials, to rapidly initiate and conduct Phase I-Phase I/II (bridging) clinical trials in patients at risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection and/or patients with COVID-19.

Description: NIAID is issuing this Notice of Special Interest to highlight the need for research on SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 in select scientific areas using the R03, R41/42, and R43/44 funding mechanisms.

Identification and evaluation of the innate, cellular and humoral immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection, including, but not limited to: cross-reactive antibodies from individuals exposed to SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses; viral epitopes critical for T cell activation or antibody binding and neutralization; immune-mediated pathology or host factors that might predispose to severe infection; and studies to examine duration of protection or the potential for reinfection

Development of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidates, including approaches for pan-coronavirus protection, that include emerging antigen design strategies, novel platforms or delivery approaches, adjuvants, or assessing cross-neutralization potential of SARS-CoV vaccine candidates

Due Dates: Due dates on or after 6/16/2020Budget: See the corresponding funding opportunity announcements for details

Identification and characterization of the onset and duration of immunity in healthy and at-risk populations

Virologic and serologic surveillance studies and natural history studies to understand the origin of the virus including the animal host reservoir, potential intermediate hosts, factors leading to spill over events, evidence of continued spill over events and studies at the human-animal interface

Studies to assess and characterize the natural history and long-term consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection in various human populations including at risk populations

Development or improvement of clinical diagnostic tests for SARS-CoV-2 to increase the sensitivity, specificity and ability to provide rapid results

Development and testing of SARS-CoV-2 therapeutic candidates in relevant in vitro, ex vivo or animal models

Development of SARS-CoV-2-specific or broadly protective coronavirus vaccine candidates

Studies to inform the development of vaccination strategies for at-risk populations including use of age-specific adjuvants or novel antigen formulations/dosing

Development of assays and animal models to evaluate the potential of enhanced disease after vaccination for SARS-CoV-2

Assess animal models for SARS-CoV-2 and how the models compare to human infection including animal models that represent at risk populations (elderly, immunocompromised, very young, pregnant models)

Development of animal models for transmission experiments;

Development of organoid culture models and/or ex vivo explant models

Computational modeling studies to identify and evaluate interventions to protect at-risk populations and for making public health policy decisions for control and mitigation measures

Study interactions and impact between SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory pathogens including influenza (e.g., co-infections, interference)

Comparative studies of SARS-CoV-2 to other coronaviruses including SARS-CoV-1 and MERS

Description: The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to solicit research applications for milestone-driven projects focused on preclinical development of lead candidate therapeutics, vaccines and related countermeasures against select NIAID Emerging Infectious Diseases/Pathogens. Applications must include a Product Development Strategy attachment and demonstrate substantive investment by at least one industrial participant.

Topics: Preclinical development of lead candidate therapeutics, vaccines and related countermeasures against select NIAID Emerging Infectious Diseases/Pathogens, including SARS-CoV-2.

Due Dates: 6/29/2020Budget: $750,000 in direct costs and $300,000 in equipment costs in Year 1; $750,000 in direct costs per year thereafter

Topics: Predictive models for the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and other related infectious agents (all relevant grants). Repurposing or modification of diagnostic tools currently under development to enable rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection; rapid development of potential therapeutic agents for COVID-19 (SBIR/STTR grants only).

Topics: Use of informatics solutions to diagnose cases and the use of CTSA-supported core resources to facilitate research on COVID-19 and advance the translation of research findings into diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines.

Topic: Use of microphysiological systems or tissue chips in
collecting and examining data on the risks and outcomes for COVID-19 infection,
and advance the translation of research findings into diagnostics,
therapeutics, and vaccines.

Due Date: Rolling through 01/26/2022Budget: 25% total costs of current parent award

Description: NIDCD invites applications for research on COVID-19 in relation to NIDCD’s scientific programs of hearing, balance, taste, smell, voice, speech, and language.

Topics: Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

The effects of prolonged oral intubation on laryngeal function and voice production

Short-term and long-term effects of COVID-19 on the auditory, vestibular, or olfactory systems

The prevalence, onset, and resolution of acquired deficits (i.e., HBTSVSL) among patients with COVID-19 across the lifespan and in association with various underlying genetic predispositions and health conditions

The molecular mechanisms underlying chemosensory dysfunction due to SARS-CoV-2 infection

The impact of stress/isolation on speech, language or fluency recovery/development in children or adults

The impact of potential congenital transmission of maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection to the newborn in relation to the auditory, vestibular, olfactory, or vocal function and/or the impact on speech production or language acquisition

Potential ototoxicity from therapeutics or vaccination related to COVID-19

Worsening of communicative function because of physical distancing, sheltering in place, and wearing of protective personal equipment during mitigation of this infectious pandemic

Telehealth service delivery to individuals with communication disorders

Topics:
Direct action of
the virus on kidney, gastrointestinal tract function, and the
endocrine/metabolic system, and the collection of biosamples that will inform
the understanding of renal, gastrointestinal, and endocrine/metabolic sequelae
of viral infection.

Due Date: Rolling through 6/2/2020Budget: Lesser of current year direct cost budget or $500,000

National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB)

NIBIB has issued a shared set of topics and three separate NOSIs for current grantees, SBIR/STTR applicants, and all other applicants:

Description: NIBIB is providing substantial support to accelerate the development, validation, and commercialization of innovative point-of-care and home-based tests, as well as improvements to clinical laboratory tests, that can directly detect SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. NIBIB will support the full range of product development including, commercialization and product distribution. RADx will support novel solutions that build the U.S. capacity for SARS-CoV-2 testing up to 100-fold above what is achievable with standard approaches.

Topics: SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic testing technologies in two stages:

Early stage: transformative innovations based on novel testing strategies that have potential for major scale up

Description: NINDS is issuing this Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) to highlight the urgent need for research on Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and on biological effects on the nervous system of its causative agent, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Research of interest must fall within NINDS’s scientific mission, which is to support basic, translational, and clinical neuroscience research to expand fundamental knowledge about the brain and nervous system and to use that knowledge to reduce the burden of neurological disease.

Description: The Office of Strategic Coordination (OSC), which manages the Common Fund, is issuing this Notice of Special Interest to stimulate innovative research on SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19. OSC seeks new, innovative perspectives and approaches to the prevention of, preparation for, or response to coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, domestically or internationally.

Topics: Any relevant area of innovative research is welcome, including behavioral/social science research, research on health disparities, novel therapeutics, and other related topics.

Due Dates: Accepting applications on a rolling basis until 6/19/2020Budget: Should not exceed the annual amount of the current parent award

Description: NLM is issuing this Notice of Special Interest to highlight the urgent need for innovative high-risk/high-impact research on SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 in relation to NLM’s strategic goal of fostering data driven research.

Topics: NLM is encouraging the submission of R21 applications to address the following research areas of interest:

Methods for mining clinical data that can be used to identify or predict presence of COVID-19 in biomedical phenotype data, or other relevant topics, such as discovery of risks for infection by SARS-Cov-2 viruses and the use of standard terminologies for these viruses in federated health data sets

Public health surveillance methods that mine genomic, viromic, health data, environmental data and/or data from other pertinent sources such as social media, to identify the spread and impact of SARS-Cov-2

Description: The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) has issued a Notice of Special Interest to highlight the urgent need for research on COVID-19 and will place a high priority on topics that would be of immediate and high impact to protect and ensure the safety of personnel and patients in dental practices.

Topics:

Prevention of SARS-COV-2 transmission

Improvements in the detection and diagnosis of COVID-19

Acquisition of a more robust understanding of SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis

Influence and interaction of sex (a biological variable) and gender (a social construct), race and ethnicity in relation to COVID-19

Description: The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) has announced the availability of funds for Administrative Supplements or Urgent Competitive Revisions to promote research on the effects of natural products alone or in combination with other complementary and integrative health approaches on SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19.

Description: The Office of The Director of the NIH has issued a notice of special interest to encourage eligible Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) cohort grantees to apply for an administrative supplement aimed at fostering time-sensitive science related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Topics:

Impact on ECHO health outcomes of having probable or definite COVID-19 infection, including interactions with other early exposures of interest in ECHO. ECHO Program Office encourages addressing pre-/peri-/postnatal outcomes.

Impact on psychosocial, behavioral, economic, health services, or health outcomes of living during the time of the COVID-19.

Impact on best practices for implementing the ECHO-wide Cohort data collection protocol during or after the COVID-19 pandemic. Examples of research topics include but are not limited to:

Impact on research staff, participants, operations, data completeness, or data quality of pausing cohort operations, and ways to mitigate those impacts.

Introducing new approaches to informed consent, data or specimen collection, return of results, or other research-related activities.

Description: The NCI has announced the availability of grant funding through the cooperative agreement mechanism U01 for SARS-CoV-2 research projects that will be part of a Serological Sciences Network (SeroNet).

Topics:

Identifying and advancing research opportunities to characterize the immune responses elicited by SARS-CoV-2 viral infection

The NSF
encourages investigators to use existing NSF funding mechanisms to
submit proposals to conduct non-medical, non-clinical-care research that can be
used immediately to explore how to model and understand the spread of COVID-19,
to inform and educate about the science of virus transmission and prevention,
and to encourage the development of processes and actions to address this
global challenge.

For
proposals of up to $200K, NSF encourages using the Rapid Response Research
(RAPID) funding mechanism, which allows NSF to receive and review proposals
having a severe urgency.

Dear Colleague Letter: Provisioning Advanced Cyberinfrastructure to Further Research on the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

The Office
of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC) within the Directorate for Computer and
Information Science and Engineering is inviting RAPID proposals and
supplemental funding requests to existing awards that address COVID-19
challenges through data and/or software infrastructure development activities.

Description: The DHS is seeking innovative commercial products for exposure detection, prevention, containment and treatment of COVID-19 and similar microbial threats. Through this contract opportunity, the DHS will rapidly acquire, test, and deploy suitable products.

DRL FY19 Countering Corruption amid COVID-19

Description: The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL) announces an open competition for organizations interested in submitting applications in support of the goal of combating corruption arising in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Topics: Anti-corruption solutions

Due Dates: 6/12/2020Budget: $1,000,000

Other US Funding AgenciesDEADLINE APPROACHING

Wellcome, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Mastercard

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome, and Mastercard have committed up to $125 million in seed funding to speed-up the response to the COVID-19 epidemic by identifying, assessing, developing, and scaling-up treatments. The COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator will play a catalytic role by accelerating and evaluating new and repurposed drugs and biologics to treat patients with COVID-19 in the immediate term, and other viral pathogens in the longer-term.

Scaling up production and commercialization of successful drugs and monoclonal antibodies.

Due Date: Not SpecifiedBudget: Not Specified; Total Program Budget – $125,000,000

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

NIST Manufacturing
USA National Emergency Assistance Program

NIST invites applications from the 2,000 current Manufacturing USA institutes, including small manufacturers, two-thirds of Fortune 50 U.S. manufacturers, and nearly every top ranked research and engineering university in the United States.

Topic: Projects should focus on responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Projects may include medical countermeasures; non-medical countermeasures; leveraging institute capabilities to strengthen state and community resilience; grants to companies and technical support to accelerate productions of critical materials, equipment, and supplies; creation of additional production facilities; technology roadmapping for pandemic response and recovery; reshoring the manufacture of critical conventional drugs and ensuring supply chain for critical materials related to pandemic response; or workforce development and training for a skilled advanced manufacturing workforce.

Due Date: RollingBudget: $250,000 – $10 million

Agency for Health Care Research and Quality (AHRQ)DEADLINE APPROACHING

Description: The Agency for Health Care Research and Quality invites R01 grant applications for funding to support novel, high-impact studies evaluating the responsiveness of healthcare delivery systems, healthcare professionals, and the overall U.S. healthcare system to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Topics:

Effects on quality, safety, and value of health system response to COVID-19

Role of primary care practices and professionals during the COVID-19 epidemic

Understanding how the response to COVID-19 affected socially vulnerable populations and people with multiple chronic conditions

Digital healthcare, including innovations and challenges encountered in the rapid expansion of telehealth response to COVID-19

Due Dates: 6/15/2020Budget: $1,000,000 ($500,000 per year for up to 2 years)

Description: CEPI has opened an additional funding opportunity for the rapid development of vaccines against COVID-19, with a goal of achieving licensure/emergency authorization in 12-18 months or less and ensuring the availability of sufficient doses for widespread global deployment as soon as possible in 2021.

Topics: Development of a COVID-19 vaccine for large-scale production

Due Dates: Applications accepted on a rolling basis until at least 6/30/2020Budget: Not specified

2) Preventing and mitigating disease outbreaks through efforts such as

strengthening access to affordable primary healthcare systems

enhancing disease surveillance systems

improving healthcare supply chains

Due Dates: 6/18/2020Budget: $10,000 for each selected Solver team; eligible Solver teams may also apply for The Elevate Prize for Health Security, awarded by The Elevate Prize Foundation, which provides a minimum of $300,000 in funding over two years for the winning Solver team.

California Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Special Call for COVID-19 Projects – Partnership Opportunities in Support of Discovery, Translational and Clinical Trial Stage Activities

Description: Focusing on the development of therapies for COVID-19, CIRM has issued a special announcement to support promising discovery, preclinical and clinical trial stage projects that could quickly advance new treatments.

Topics:

Cell-based COVID-19 therapies that use, target, or are manufactured using stem or progenitor cells

Gene therapies for COVID-19 that are intended to replace, regenerate, or repair the function of aged, diseased, damaged, or defective cells, tissues, and/or organs

Topics: Using AWS to support research-oriented workloads for the development of point-of-care diagnostic (testing that can be done at home or at a clinic with same-day results) and other diagnostic techniques. Initial emphasis will be on the COVID-19 coronavirus disease, but other infectious disease diagnostic projects will be considered.

Due Date: Submissions accepted until 6/30/2020. Funding decisions will be made within 45 days of submission.Budget: Awards will consist of promotional credits to be put toward AWS resource usage.

Fast Grants

Fast Grants are available exclusively to PIs at academic institutions
already working on COVID-19 related projects that could help with the pandemic
within the next six months.

Topics: Modest additions to existing aims as they relate to COVID-19
or new aims designed to produce useful knowledge related to COVID-19 and the
original award. Taking advantage of
natural experiments in health system, state, and provider responses is strongly
encouraged.

Due Date: Rolling submissionsBudget: $500,000 for Research Projects; $150,000 for Engagement Awards

Description: The 2020 Call for Code Global Challenge is a competition in which Call for Code is asking innovators to create practical, effective, and high-quality applications based on one or more IBM Cloud™ services (for example, web, mobile, data, analytics, AI, IoT, or weather) to mitigate the impact of COVID-19.

Topics: Creation of IBM Cloud™-based, open-source applications to mitigate the impact of COVID-19, for example, by improving crisis communications or fostering remote learning and community cooperation.

Due Dates: 7/31/2020Budget: One $200,000 grand prize; two $25,000 first and second runner-up prizes; two $10,000 third and fourth runner-up prizes

West Coast Consortium for Technology & Innovation in Pediatrics (CTIP)

Description: The West Coast Consortium for Technology & Innovation in Pediatrics (CTIP) is announcing a limited grant opportunity to support pediatric medical device innovators who are able to use their technology to aid in the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Topics: Pediatric medical device development or adaptation to manage the impact of COVID-19 on children

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro – FAPERJ

Description: FAPERJ is providing funding to continue the work of networks in Brazil studying emerging and reemerging viruses and to finance the study of Covid-19 and the SARS-CoV-2 virus by various organizations, including startups and small, micro, and medium-sized companies based in the State of Rio de Janeiro.

Topics:

Genomics

Pathophysiology of the disease

Clinical aspects

Diagnosis of the disease

Epidemiology

Virus-host interaction

Development of diagnostic kits

Disease control and coping strategies

Innovative solutions to expand supplies of items such as masks, alcohol gel, and respirators

Due Dates: Applications are accepted on a rolling basisBudget: Not specified

Canada

Genome Canada

Description: Genome Canada is issuing a funding opportunity to support regional genomics projects designed to address specific, short-term needs of industry, not-for-profit, and public sector recipients through research conducted by academics in collaboration with these recipients. Projects are expected to be outcome-driven, small-scale or larger (depending on other funding sources) and focused on delivering a genomics-based solution to help address the current crisis in the near term.

Topics: Examples of relevant topics include:

Identifying and detecting COVID-19 infections

Understanding mechanisms of infection

Mapping the spread in real time

Tracking new mutations

Developing drug treatments or vaccines for the disease

Due Dates: Accepting applications on a rolling basis until 7/1/2020Budget: Not specified ($250,000 [CAD] allocated per Genome Center)

National Research Council Canada

Description: NRC Canada is offering project funding to small and medium-sized businesses that are working to provide COVID-19 solutions in the form of goods or services to health care workers and public health officials currently fighting the pandemic.

Topics: Development of COVID-19 solutions for health care workers and public health officials

Description: The Horizon 2020 Framework Programme has released 5 topics for COVID-19-related research funding. For most of the topics, the Programme is seeking collaborative proposals from entities located in at least three different EU Member States or Horizon 2020-associated countries.

Topics:

Repurposing of manufacturing for vital medical supplies and equipment (SC1-PHE-CORONAVIRUS-2020-2A)

DIM ELICIT

Description: The DIM ELICIT organization would like to support collaborative projects developing innovative technologies and methods for the analysis, diagnosis and/or treatment of SARS-CoV-2. The program is open to research teams in the Ile de France region.

Topics: The technologies targeted in this call must belong to at least one core technology and one end-user application from the following lists:

Core technologies:

Microfludics

Biophotonic and waves

Image analysis and Big Data

End-user applications:

Single cell/Single molecule

Organ-on-a-chip

Technologies for in vivo biology

High-tech, low-cost technologies

Due Dates: Applications are accepted on a rolling basisBudget: €15k for running and/or staff costs; €30k for equipment

Malta Council for Science and Technology and Malta Enterprise Corporation

Description: The Malta Council for Science and Technology and Malta Enterprise Corporation have announced a €5.3 Million COVID-19 R&D Fund targeting public, academic, and private entities to enable R&D on COVID-19. The fund is especially interested in projects with outcomes not only addressing innovative and/or improved approaches related to the current pandemic but also potential future waves and other antiviral relevant research.

Vinnova

Description: Vinnova is calling for innovative ideas to address the wider impact of the coronavirus crisis and support Swedish society. New solutions should be ready to be put into practice within six to twelve months.

Topics: Any new coronavirus-related need addressed through the conversion of production or activities, where a first solution is ready within 6-12 months

Due Dates: 6/10/2020 and 8/21/2020Budget: Up to SEK 1,000,000

United Kingdom

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)

Proposals
will be accepted from anyone who is normally eligible to apply for UKRI funding. You will need to show that you can
start work within 4 weeks of the funding being confirmed.

Description: UKRI has announced a call for proposals for UK-led academic, small and medium-sized enterprise, and wider industry research that will address a wide range of COVID-19 knowledge gaps/needs, and which will lead to a benefit in UK, potentially international, public health within 12 months.

Topics:

Virology, immunity and pathophysiology

Diagnostics

Epidemiology

Personal protective equipment

Infection prevention and control measures

Public Health, Media and Communication

Clinical Management

Primary, Adjunctive and Supportive Therapies

Vaccines

Health and care delivery

Assays and animal models

Research infrastructure

Due Dates: Applications are accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis until 4/1/2021Budget: Not limited, but must reflect the needs of the research project